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NASA News National Aeronautics and Space Administration Washington https://ntrs.nasa.gov/search.jsp?R=19800070818 2020-03-21T16:40:50+00:00Z NASA News National Aeronautics and Space Administration Washington. D.C. 20546 AC 202 755-8370 ( A r> . -. For Release: o <n p w r> to vo Mary Fitzpatricki . THURSDAY, 1 H co o On Headquarters, Washington, D.C. December 21, 1979 2a DOO C-N (Phone:. 202/755-8370) XjS'tpx4^^^»®^^^1 - ' " ji- *'<51VV'v\. <N ^ePP ^ ^w\ ;*<SkV ^^ J1^ t— 0 ^"' OFCI979 ^ O RELEASE NO: 79-179 ^ ^fCf/{/cn col fe WASASTI *»j PM fe ACCESS DEPT^ <S/ O ' \vx ' * ^ \ v "• ... <o H «i HIGHLIGHTS OF 1979 ACTIVITIES: YEKR^j^i^E PLANETS B H O H H as i-J «Q .; K *3 ' . ID O< Q> •« H , O B= W (0 35 0, The closing year of the seventies was a triumphant H CO O ft* T3 one in U.S. space exploration, yielding historic and breath- f» O « *~ (fl 1 as & a; <n O, taking closeup views of distant planets, moons and rings. f> M O | H .H «- 0 4J r- W ' ' 9 «d •• <B 0> w a _ The excitement of 1979 's planetary discoveries was rH w o a 0> H M O 03 H QJ -H interrupted briefly, in mid-year by a returning hulk — 1 H •« +* W t» ; (0 * HH M Qj E-i (0 *J Skylab. And even that went well, the Earth-orbiting experi- SB u a w 1 »aS O -rl rt -el 0. mental space station completing its atmospheric reentry M O> +* -H •a r< «> s a en » us and breakup without damage or injury. _ *~ * ) -more- December 18, 1979 -2- The agency also had a perfect launch record in 1979, the second year in a row and the fourth in its 21-year .history. The nine NASA launches for the year covered the gamut from high energy astrophysics, communications and cosmic ray particles to data on aerosols and ozone in the . «W Earth's atmosphere. " ,, • - i i Other NASA highlights in 1979 included continuing work, with some problems, on Space Shuttle development; a U.S./China agreement on cooperation in science and tech- nology; expanded applications of space technology; con- tinuing work on safer more efficient aircraft. -more- -3- Space Science This was the year of the planets in space exploration. The first high-resolution pictures of Jupiter, and five of its satellites were received from Voyagers 1 and 2 in March and July using two onboard, slow-scan TV cameras. Pioneers 10 and 11. had taken pictures of the planet in 1973 and 1974, but not of the same quality. Several weeks after the second Voyager flew by Jupiter, Pioneer 11 sped under the rings of Saturn, taking pictures of the planet and it's Mercury-sized moon, Titan. These were the first closeup pictures even taken of Saturn, the most distant planet yet reached in the exploration of the solar system. The Voyager encounters were the most remarkable plane- tary flybys of this year or any other year. Not only did the two spacecraft return the best imagery ever, received of the gaseous planet, showing in detail the dynamic.behavior of the Jovian atmosphere, but they also discovered: • A 14th moon orbiting the planet. • A previously unknown Jovian ring. • The inner Galilean moon, lo, is by far the most volcanically active member of the solar .system. • The two outer Galilean moons, Ganymede and Callisto, have a substantial amount of water ice, heavily cratered surfaces and there are indications of tectonic plate motion, on Ganymede. • Europa is a smooth satellite with no remains of early bombardment (craters) but it does .have hugh global-scale linear, crustal features -- some over 1,000 kilometers . (600 miles) long by. 200-300 km (120-180 mi.) wide— indicating, a young warm surface. Pioneer 11 found that Saturn consists of liquid metallic hydrogen, has an llth moon, a magnetic field, radiation belts and two previously undetected rings, but no evidence of an innermost D ring or an expected outer E ring. In addition, measurements indicate that Saturn's rings are made largely of ice and that radiation belts are completely eliminated by the rings -- the most radiation-free area in the solar system. -more- -4- Saturn cloud tops exhibit few details, unlike those of Jupiter, and overall the planet appears to have more and narrower belts and zones than Jupiter. The upper atmosphere was warmer than expected and the planet was found to radiate 2.5 times more heat into space than it received from the Sun. As for the planet-sized satellite, Titan, Pioneer 11 showed it has extremely low cloud top temperatures of -198 C (-324 F.), thus eliminating an internal heat source to warm its surface and limiting the chance that life could exist there. While Pioneer 11 was making its epic.visit to Saturn, Pioneer 10 continued its journey out of the solar system, having passed the orbit of Uranus in July. The two Pioneers, like the two Voyagers, eventually will pass out of the solar system into interstellar space. Pioneer Venus, launched in 1978, continued its success- ful mission. Probes were dispatched from the spacecraft as it approached the planet and measured the atmosphere as they plunged to the surface. In December last year, the orbiter was successfully inserted into orbit. As data returned to Earth over the next few months, more was learned about the planet than had ever been known before. It was found that the surface of Venus is unlike any other planet in the solar system. It has huge mountains, great plateaus, deep rifts and circular features that appear to be impact craters made early in its history. Elsewhere in the solar system, on Mars, three years after two Viking orbiters and landers successfully began transmitting information from the planet, one orbiter con- tinues to transmit pictures back to Earth and to relay data from Lander 2. As the attitude control gas on the Viking orbiter approaches depletion, both the orbiter and Lander 2 will cease functioning, leaving only Lander 1 operating. It can transmit directly to Earth and has been programmed to do so for the next 10 years. As the year ended, NASA told Congress that its plans for a 1982 mission to Jupiter, Galileo, have been postponed. Tentatively now two spacecraft will be launched in 1984 aboard two Space Shuttle flights instead of a single Shuttle launch in 1982 that would carry one spacecraft which would separate into an orbiter and an atmospheric probe. -more- -5- In astronomy, the High Energy Astronomy Observatory continued to return fascinating new results from Earth orbit and a third spacecraft, HEAO-3, was placed in orbit in September. HEAO-2 returned new data on supernova remnants and binary systems which consist of a normal star and a highly dense companion which might be a neutron star or the theo- retical black hole. A black hole is believed to be so dense that not even light can escape its gravitational pull. Based on the results of the HEAD data, it is expected that scientists will better understand how heavy elements are created in such super star explosions and provide more information on the physical processes within and around neutron stars. In addition, it is believed that with more detailed observations of this type the chances for coming up with direct evidence for the existence of black holes is .greatly advanced. For example, HEAO observations of a quasar showed that its X-ray intensity decreased sharply in less than two hours, implying that the X-ray emitting component must be both extremely compact and massive. The theoretical object that could .produce the tremendous energy measured from quasars (the equivalent of ten thousand billion Suns) would be an enormous black hole. In this case, it would be approximately two billion times the mass of the Sun. Space Transportation System Space Shuttle orbiter Columbia, the external tank, and all components of the solid rocket boosters were delivered to the Kennedy Space Center, Fla., this year in preparation for the historic first-launch of the spacecraft in 1980. The Columbia was "piggybacked" to Kennedy aboard its Boeing 747 carrier aircraft in March from NASA Dryden Flight Research .Center, Edwards, Calif., after an overland move from the Rockwell International Corp. plant at Palmdale, Calif. Progress in processing the Columbia has shown steady improvement since mid-year. Over 10,000 thermal protection tiles have been installed since March and the first three flight engines have been installed while the Columbia has been quartered in the Orbiter Processing Facility. -more- -6- Main eng'ine testing and installation and integrity of the thermal protection system have been the pacing items in preparing the Columbia for its first test flight. Over 52,000 test seconds have been logged on the Space Shuttle main engine toward the 80,000 seconds of test firings planned before the first orbital flight. A main fuel valve failure in July and the rupture of an engine nozzle hydrogen line in October during main pro- pulsion test firings caused two delays in three-engine cluster firing tests. The firings were scheduled to resume near the end of the year. Previous main engine development problems have been overcome and minor turbine pump problems are being solved. Extensive laboratory testing coupled with wind tunnel and aircraft flight testing has been conducted during 1979 to better understand the structural integrity of the thermal tile. As a result of analysis and testing a major effort to improve the bonding of the tile to the spacecraft and sub- sequent development of a higher strength tile has occurred.
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